Directed and co-written by Madonna, W.E. tells the story of two fragile but determined women, separated by more than six decades. In 1998, lonely New Yorker Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) is obsessed with what she perceives as the ultimate love story: King Edward's VIII's abdication of the British throne for the woman he loved, American divorcée Wallis Simpson.
But Wally's research, including several visits to the Sotheby's auction of the Windsor Estate, reveals that the couple's life together was not as perfect as she thought. Weaving back and forth in time, W.E. intertwines Wally's journey of discovery in New York with the story of Wallis (Riseborough) and Edward (D'Arcy), from the glamorous early days of their romance to the slow unraveling of their lives in the decades that followed.
The film stars Cornish (Sucker Punch), Oscar Isaac (Drive), James D'Arcy (Master and Commander, An American Haunting), Andrea Riseborough (Happy-Go-Lucky), Natalie Dormer (Captain America: The First Avenger), Richard Coyle (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), James Fox (Sherlock Holmes) and Laurence Fox (Becoming Jane).
Produced by Semtex Films, W.E. will be distributed in the US by The Weinstein Company. Village Roadshow will release the film in Australia.